TSKD 267

The individual that had pushed her way through the bushes was undoubtedly a maid. Wait. Weren’t we supposed to be in the midst of a haunt containing C ranked monsters? The hell is a maid doing here? If there was a limit to how out of place one could possibly be, then this maid had just exceeded the hell out of it.

Her being a maid wasn’t really the part that surprised me the most. I’d already met many maids post reincarnation.

I was as surprised as I was because the maid before me was a whole cut above the rest. She wasn’t wearing the traditional servant wear one normally saw on the maids around these parts. Rather, she wore a less sexualized version of the frilly, lacy, gothic-lolita style dress you’d typically see in anime and manga. Her clothes clearly put cuteness well above functionality.

The dress, whose main colours were white and navy, came with an equally fancy apron attached to it. The bottom part of the dress extended almost all the way towards the ground. It gave her a really prim and proper kinda feel, which really got me going. The girl wearing the maid uniform had a well proportioned figure and clear body lines. Her curves reminded me greatly of Fujiko’s. [1] Moreover, her eyes made her seem cold. She was just the type of maid I liked. Her long chestnut hair was styled into three distinct braids. Her long bangs had been pushed aside to put her forehead on display.

Her nose was decorated with a pair of thick-lensed glasses. They were heavy, and if you looked at her straight on, it almost looked like they were falling off her face.

Man, round glasses are the best.

There was no doubt in my mind that her glasses were sexy as hell. Her ears were black and resembled those of a horse’s. They were a bit difficult to see, in part because of the brim she was wearing and in part because they’d been pushed back such that they blended in with her hair. At first, I’d thought that they were just accessories.

She was pretty strong, seeing as how she’d evolved. She looked like she was more than fit for combat, or rather assassination, even though she was a maid.

Classifying her in adventurer terms, she was at least as strong as a B ranker. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were an A ranker either, given that I had no idea how large the powerboost she’d get from awakening was.

“My lady, I’ve told you time and time again to slow down. I can’t keep up with you, and it’s dangerous for you to dash on ahead of me,” rebuked the maid.

The maid, Kuina, turned her eyes in Fran’s direction. Her gaze remained cold, but it didn’t seem like she was judging Fran. Instead, it seemed more like she was simply sleepy, but at the same time, she gave off a mysterious feel. The lack of emotion within made it difficult to guess her thoughts. Her eyes were similar to Fran’s, but gave the impression that she had even less interest in other people.

In fact, she didn’t seem surprised even though she’d stared Fran down. Of all the beastkin we met she gave the smallest reaction to Fran’s evolution.

“That… is surprising, so much so that I almost tripped and fell,” the maid remarked.

“Indeed. Never before have I seen your face decorated with such a deep expression of surprise.”

Apparently, she was not actually uninterested in Fran. Her emotions just didn’t show on her face. I was honestly impressed that her companion was even capable of discerning her emotions, let alone their intensity.

“You, name yourself!” the silver haired girl commanded.

I wanted Fran to tell her that it was rude to ask another’s name without first providing one’s own, but—

“Rather, it would be more appropriate for me to provide my own name first. I am Mare, and I allow you to refer to me as such!” the girl that had named herself Mare declared in an imposing, self-important tone.

“And I’m Kuina. Nice to meet you.”

Mare placed both hands on her hips and took a proud stance as she declared herself, whereas Kuina instead performed a clean, crisp bow as she gave her name. They seemed really disorganized given the disparity between the manner in which they introduced themselves, but didn’t really come off as bad people nonetheless.

“Fran…? So you really are the Black Lightning Princess,” Mare nodded, as if to confirm her own suspicions.

“Nn.”

She knew about the Black Lightning Princess. So wait, does that mean she’s an adventurer? She’s got a maid though, so she’s probably not… Is she a merchant or something? No, that doesn’t seem quite right…

“I never would have thought that we would meet you under circumstances like these,” said Kuina. “I would have liked us to meet in a more peaceful environment.”

“I am speaking of the manticore that you slew! I was in the midst of hunting it down. You snatched the most enjoyable part of the hunt from right under my nose!” Mare shouted indignantly as she pointed towards the roasted manticore corpse lying right by us. Apparently, the manticore hadn’t been in our way because it’d lost its territory but rather because it had chosen to flee from Mare and her maid.

Under normal circumstances, my first reaction would be to accuse Mare of bullshitting, but I was pretty sure that she and Kuina would be able to handle a manticore without issue.

There was no debating that we’d stolen their kill. But at the same time, it was also their fault for letting their prey run from them in the first place. Still, we would’ve likely also began complaining if we were in their shoes.

“I’d prefer not turning this into any sort of major conflict if possible. What say you, Fran?”

“Nn…? Can just give manticore?” she replied nonchalantly.

“You sure?”

“Don’t mind.”

I personally had no problem giving them the materials if it meant avoiding conflict. The only issue would be that I’ve already absorbed the core. Cores were valuable to adventurers, and given that there was obviously no way we could’ve possible sold it already, I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to talk our way through the current circumstances.

“Then can give you manticore materials,” offered Fran.

“Keep them. I need them not.” Mare flatly rejected her.

“My lady, I beg you to reconsider,” interjected Kuina. “We do require them given our funds are beginning to run dry.”

“…I do admit that there is no harm in procuring them. However, they are but an extra. I was more interested in the slaying of the manticore and the experience I would gain, as I am quite close to leveling up.” Mare complained.

Oh, so they were grinding. That made sense. If Mare was anywhere near as strong as Kuina, then she’d need to defeat something at least as strong as a manticore if she wanted to gain any significant amount of experience.

“Your fault. Let prey escape,” pointed out Fran.

Mare grumbled in dissatisfaction, her face scrunching up.

“I believe the Black Lightning Princess is in the right here, My Lady,” Kuina noted.

“…I understand,” Mare relented. “…But I won’t forgive you lest you engage me in a spar!”

Again, Mare spoke in a cocky, self-important tone, but I didn’t mind it. At first I thought it was because of how pretty she looked, but Fran felt the same way I did, so that probably wasn’t it. Mysteriously, Fran didn’t feel repulsed by it like she often did when other nobles did the same.

Was it just because her cuteness seemed to overrule her stubbornness? Or because her pride almost seemed a natural fit for her? Of course, I don’t feel the urge to suddenly kneel before her and obey her every whim, but I did feel like nodding along and agreeing was the natural thing to do.

“Interested,” said Fran.

“I’m not sure that’s a request you would typically spring on someone so suddenly, My Lady,” Kuina remarked.

“A duel with the famous Black Lightning Princess,” said Mare, ignoring her maid, “should more than suffice to make up for the loss of the manticore. What say you, Black Lightning Princess?”

I didn’t even need to hear Fran’s answer to know exactly what she was thinking. Her eyes were blazing in a way that they only ever did when she was in battle mode. It was completely self-evident that she was going to comply with Mare’s request.

“Got it.”

“A splendid response!” said Mare, happily. “Let us find a more convenient place to spar. This area is not exactly what I would claim the most suitable.”

“Nn!”

Oh well, I guess it’s fine. Neither Kuina or Mare had lied, and neither was giving off the impression that they wanted to kill her, so why not.

Calling it a plot hole is much better than simply stating, “The sword is an idiot.” Because there is no real in-universe explanation as to why he cannot connect the dots. Unless you can provide me with one? To me, and many others, him not realising this piece of information is important is pretty much a way to advance the plot through a momentary loss of insight on the MC’s part, and can be considered a plot hole and/or plot armour. Like how a bad guy may not notice the very obvious movements and actions of the MC, the MC not noticing something or not connecting the dots when it comes to something obvious like shown in this chapter could in some ways be considered partial plot armour, armour which allows the plot to move forward securely…

I am not sure why you are getting so passive-aggressive when my comment is in some ways logical, and that I have already stated I enjoy the novel quite a bit.

“Calling it a plot hole is much better than simply stating, “The sword is an idiot.” ”
No, call something what it is. A plot hole is a fail in logic, like the author stating that a mechanic in the world works in a specific way and then a practical demonstration later contradicts the earlier word of god statement. The main character being unobservant and not putting 2+2 together isn’t a plot hole, it would only be a plot hole if he figured out the truth without any clues to work with.

Prove he isn’t simply being unobservant. The reader has the benefit of reading this all calmly in a quiet environment and knowing this is a novel (thus fully expecting Mare to be the princess), whereas he’s glancing down the list of skills and titles while paying attention to the actions of two random people who could potentially be a threat to Fran, after having just fought a Manticore. It is far from impossible for him to overlook the implications of a single line of text out of over 60 lines, for example he could have been distracted by the implications of the high level “assassination” skill at the top of her skills list instead of carefully reading over all of her titles to do with cleaning and housekeeping. He even starts talking about her assassination skills after the appraisal, showing that he’s focused on that above anything else.

As for plot armour, you’re just throwing out terms you’ve heard of once and have zero clue on the meaning of. Your comment is the antithesis of ‘logic’, it’s shallow and poorly thought out.

I have not read this novel for a while, but I do remember there being a few plot holes present in this novel, a lot of novels have them, some minor, some major, usually not a big deal for the most part. I would agree that after looking back, I would not consider the overlooking of the Royal Maid title to be a plot hole. It is simply the MC overlooking something in favour of focusing on something that is relevant to the situation at hand, because despite the level system and his sword-like body, he is still a human underneath, who’s sole focus is on protecting Fran at any given moment. I would at most call this a character flaw.

It has been a while since I have read this, so I am also not sure if he is able to recall the results of an appraisal later, he most likely has only a short amount of time to skim-read through an appraisal result, unlike us who can spend a long time reading through everything.

Personally, I would put much more emphasis on checking the title’s, because they reveal a lot more than most of the status could (they pretty much give a good reading of their character, if they are good or evil, what their role in society is, it can tell you if those in front of you are more dangerous than the stats let on), but that is what I personally would do, not the MC. I understand overlooking the cleaning and housekeeping skills, but overlooking titles seems a bit of a stretch, even if he is in a tense situation. The words “Royal Maid” stick out quite a bit, it only takes a tiny bit of his time to scan the titles and then focus back on everything else, he doesn’t necessarily have to process that information on the spot, but certainly process it afterwards.

Also, I understand the meaning of the terms ‘Plot Armour’ and ‘Plot Hole’, but I am unable to think of any other word to use to make the admittedly poor point I was trying to make. I guess I was just annoyed at being called an idiot for something so minor, so I felt like I had to fight back like the little kid that I am, but eh, it’s the internet, keyboard warriors are abundant, I should have known better than to get annoyed at something so petty.

Personally I’m just sick to fucking death of people calling things in every single novel ‘plot holes’ and ‘plot armour’, like parrots repeating it so often it’s long since lost all meaning.

I’ve seen plot holes in novels, I’ve seen things that could logically be argued to be plot armour moments in some novels, but 95% or more of the time when I see somebody using either of those two terms it’s just that person wanting to comment because they feel they have to say something and not because they have something to say, or they skimmed over the details of the chapter that held the answer to their complaint, or they are thinking about the situation from their own perspective as a reader and not putting themselves into the shoes of the character in question.

Meya just looks like a typo to me… And Maya is a further stretch than Mare given the sound. I’d rather put a TL note stating my opinion on the aesthetics of Mea than have a crappy looking name on a supposedly cute girl.

Arigatou gosaimasu.. I’m very happy with the double chapter in this week .. finally back up my franium battery filled again .. I expect to update as soon as possible .. I can guess clearly who the girl is and also the maid. somehow it feels my passion burning due to the appearance of the maid … akkkhhh ****** **** *** ***** **** … sorry about that .. I’m just excited … so aftel all I can wait for the next chapter…

Thanks for the chapter! I’m also surprised like everyone else that they didn’t immediately figure out Mare’s identity considering she has a royal maid with her, but I suppose it will be more fun this way 🙂

Leave it to a Loli loving author to have strange tastes. Thick round glasses are one of the things farthest away from being sexy. Even Fujiko’s sexyness would be halfed if she were that blind that she needed to wear a thick glass-wall in her face.